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Fort Lewis soldier killed, nine injured in suicide bombing

Oct-12-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Michael Gilbert reports on yesterday's incident.

[Link to Full Article]
MICHAEL GILBERT The News Tribune

A Fort Lewis soldier was killed and nine others wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a Stryker convoy Monday morning in Mosul, according to military and news media reports.

A pickup full of explosives drove into the path of the convoy and detonated, leaving a 5-foot crater in the roadway, according to reports. [...]

The casualties come as soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division are in the final few weeks of their yearlong mission in Iraq. The brigade’s first 130 or so soldiers returned to Fort Lewis last week, with the rest of the 4,000-strong unit due home later this month and in early November.

The soldiers still in Iraq have begun training their replacements from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, also from Fort Lewis. [...]

Monday’s attack occurred about 11 a.m. Mosul time, or 1 a.m. PDT.

Soldiers were on their way back to their base after an operation to clear houses that insurgents had been using as cover for remote-controlled roadside bomb attacks in the southwest section of the city, according to the Army Times, which has a reporter with the troops in Mosul.

The Times said a battalion-sized force of Stryker soldiers – roughly 600 troops – and another 250 Iraqi troops shut down traffic on two main roads to search homes overlooking the highways.

The Iraqi troops also cleared a nearby mosque and a cemetery.

In briefings before Monday’s operation, soldiers had been warned to look out for suicide car-bombers on their way back to the base, the Times reported.

The Washington Post, citing military sources, reported the explosives were hidden among crates of fruits and vegetables.

After the blast, insurgents attacked the convoy with small-arms fire from a mosque, according to a news release issued by Task Force Olympia, the Fort Lewis-based Army command in northern Iraq.


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